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donald perry
Trad climber
kearny, NJ
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Apr 30, 2019 - 04:31pm PT
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Detroit Diesel air over hydraulic. We would overload that thing to top. A few times the truck tipped over because the load froze in the bed.
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donald perry
Trad climber
kearny, NJ
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Apr 30, 2019 - 04:46pm PT
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I started out in firewood, then graduated to logging and thereafter did big only residential tree removal. Some of the trees were 6' diameter.
Lots of close calls in those early years, but falling out of the tree happened later. I fell out of the tree head first. Around the tree was one of those double clip lanyards wrapped around itself repeatedly to take up the slack. Either that opened or more likely the screw gate locker gradually unscrewed and dumped me out. I said "Jesus Help Me" and "If you don't I'm gonna land on the fence. Trying to grab branches with the back of your hands is impossible. Subsequently my saw on a leash got caught on the crotch of tree after I feel 10 feet. Not sure how that happened. It was attached by that breakaway stihl saw ring.
Another time I almost repelled of the end of a stitch plate 10' over the top of a steel fence post. It was late in the day and the rope was short. But, the rope bunched up on the end and did not go through.
There were countless close calls, the tree business is a lot more dangerous than climbing rock in Yosemite, and you do it every day, not just on the week ends. So I suppose I could say I had 3 X more experience plus I had it kicked up a few notches. It's less airy though, if that's a good thing.
I never encountered serious kickback, not sure how that really happens that you can get hit in the face, I think I would need to work at it. I always had a tight hand on the saw.
As time goes on you just realize that there is an accident waiting around every corner, and if you spend too much away from it, perhaps in the office, then your not ready. It's all about being ready. When I say ready I do not mean being smart or being safe, or following reasonable safety rules. That's something different.
For example, stupid is when you pay out extra slack at the gym for your leader when he is only a few feet off the floor. I see that all the time. Ready is being able to catch the really complex bad setup before it catches you.
Here is an example of not being ready, I suppose. [The climber is also stupid because the loaded crane is directly over him (the obvious) as he cuts limbs that are too big for the crane. Although sometimes loads change when your over a septic etc.] Note how this guy in the tree is not tied in. That's a good thing in this case. The bad thing is as the crane goes, it goes to the right and then to the left, the guy has no idea which way to go. If he was ready for the complex he would be ready to know you gotta just go go go one way or the other and not hesitate, and not just sit there and take it like a man. Stupid was that he never calculated where the boom was going in case of overload before he cut.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3pUlWHZPo0
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Wayno
Big Wall climber
Republic, WA
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Yikes, that was brutal. I see what you mean. Thanks for the follow up. I'm going to sell my saw now and forget about climbing trees ever.
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tolman_paul
Trad climber
Anchorage, AK
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So I bought new chaps to replace the ones that saved my leg last week. Just for shits and giggles I shot the old chaps with a .45acp which is about as low velocity that you can get out of a modern pistol. Result was it went through like butter. chaps didn't even wiggle. Apparently these are Not the made from the same type of Kevlar that bullet proof vests are..
just a little FIY for you drunk rednecks out there that might be tempted to test them while wearing them...
Chainsaw chaps are nothing like a bulletproof vest, as you discovered. Chainsaw chaps are designed to quickly fray and ball up jamming the chain and bringing it to a quick stop. Needless to say body armor is designed for a completely different task.
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donald perry
Trad climber
kearny, NJ
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyPa7wDdHMY
Here is another one. When you are up in a tree like this you have to be able to cut through the tree before it splits. If the tree is leaning hard then you have to be ready to move out of the way under or around another branch it case it explodes. Another problem is that if it gets hung up, though you have cut through, it can slide back on the stump and roll over into your lap. In this case you have no where to go. So, you have to cut it in small pieces. Small pieces is always the best answer, you have to cut it up small anyway. BTW, One think I found that was beautiful, if you have a powerful saw and it's really sharp you can cut the tree into 4" disks and just throw them on the truck. Saves a lot of time. But you have to put tarps down because there is gonna be hills of sawdust.
And here is a good example of not holding on to the tool tight enough.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJmdSgWeaas
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Wayno
Big Wall climber
Republic, WA
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And here is a good example of not holding on to the tool tight enough.
That dumb little chair I cut was my first attempt at a plunge cut. I get it that the top of the tip can create kickback. I also understand the concept of being familiar with the potential forces of the tool you are using and be prepared. It reminds me of shooting a large magnum pistol like a .41 or a .44. Firm grip and get ready for some recoil. I get it. No need for any more scary videos, something about can't be unseen. Thanks for the stern warnings.
How many tree guys have PTSD?
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ontheedgeandscaredtodeath
Social climber
Wilds of New Mexico
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I wasn't with him when it happened, but the guy I did tree work with cut himself while up in a tree. He got himself down and to an emergency room. They told him to have a seat and wait! It was Oakland, probably a couple of gunshot victims in line and in worse shape. He told them no, walked towards the back and passed out from blood loss. Turned out fine but it scared him.
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Dropline
Mountain climber
Somewhere Up There
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Public service announcement.
Learning how to sharpen a chainsaw on the internet is certainly doable. The worst that can happen, if you get it wrong, is the saw won't cut straight, or at all even, or you may get a few small cuts in your fingers while moving the chain improperly.
Although this thread is about chain saw sharpening and no one has asked for advice on climbing tree work, advice about climbing tree work is being offered in at least one post above. The advice is wrong. Follow it at your own peril. The worst that can happen, if you get it wrong, is you will be maimed or killed.
There are many professions, many trades, where one can be largely self taught. In my opinion the climbing aspect of arboriculture is not one of them. Perhaps the only way, certainly the best way, to become a good, and also safe, tree climber is to learn one on one and in person, from a good and very experienced tree climber.
Best to all.
Ridiculously Experienced Arboriculture Consortium Over And Out
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zBrown
Ice climber
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From 2006
Nationally, "tree workers have a fatality rate three or four times that of police officers and firefighters," said John Ball, a South Dakota State University forestry professor who tracks tree accidents nationwide. "Your odds of being killed in this industry are one in 3,000."
Statewide, California's Division of Occupational Safety and Health, known as Cal/OSHA, has investigated 394 tree-work accidents, including 67 deaths, since 1990, when the worker-safety agency began keeping statistics. More than half those accidents -- 214, including 42 deaths -- have happened since 2000, according to agency reports.
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perswig
climber
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...professor who tracks tree accidents nationwide.
But who tracks the trees that fall in the forest and no-one is there to hear it?
Dale
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tradmanclimbs
Ice climber
Pomfert VT
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last time I checked the top 3 most dangerous occupations were deep sea fishing the North Atlantic. Logging and roofing. Law enforcement was #11 though that may have gone up a few notches in the last 3 years its still way behind the top 3.
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tradmanclimbs
Ice climber
Pomfert VT
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so I just looked it up and found the stats for 2018. the police got bumped to #14 way behind garbage collectors....
#1 Logging
#2 Deep sea fishing
#3 piolets and flight engineers. Must have been a rough year for plane crashes...
#4. Roofing.
I am not a roofer per say but certainly end up on a lot of roofs and occasionally find myself roofing. Did 2 asphalt roofs this winter. up there in snow squalls.. I feel like the frameing aspect is more sketchy. Humping 5/8ths sheets of Advantech sheathing up on the roof is super sketch inmop.
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Dropline
Mountain climber
Somewhere Up There
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The average number of fatalities per year logging is 66.
The average for tree workers is 96.
Edited to add:
Anecdotally, intuitively, tree work seems to me to be about as risky as high altitude mountaineering.
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tradmanclimbs
Ice climber
Pomfert VT
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I am assumeing that they lumped logging and tree work together on the OSHA page?
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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#3 piolets and flight engineers. Must have been a rough year for plane crashes...
I hope the piolets in my basement don’t find out what danger they’re in!
As for flight engineers, it’s like that saying: “You can’t pick yer family.”
And, BTW, there’s not been a commercial aircraft in the sky for 20 years with a flight engineer
in it. Yer list is bogus.
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